Guide to the Slavery and Indentured Servitude Collection 1752-1864

Acknowledgments

Descriptive Summary

Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.

Abstract:

Contains seven documents pertaining to indentured servants (1766-1785). The remaining documents relate to slavery and include bills of sale, a memorandum describing the slave trade in Havana (1783), estate inventories, public notices, letters, deeds, a will, and indemnity bonds. Many of the documents are facsimiles.

Information on Use

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Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Slavery and Indentured Servitude Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Scope Note

The forty-seven documents in this collection cover the period 1752 to 1864. Although acquired by the University Library from diverse sources they have been gathered together as a collection as a matter of convenience.

All the documents, a number of which are facsimiles, are in English with the exception of one bill of sale from New Orleans. Kentucky, South Carolina, and New Orleans are most frequently represented. Place could not be assigned to a number of documents in the collection.

The collection has been divided into two series. Series I: Indentured Servitude Documents, includes seven items concerning indentured servants from 1766-1785. Five of these relate to redemptioners transported in 1785 aboard the ship Favorite.

Series II: Slavery Documents, contains forty documents on slavery, including bills of sale, receipts, estate inventories and appraisals, public notices and other items documenting slavery and the slave trade.

The majority of documents, specifically the bills of sale, "deeds of inventory," and a number from the miscellaneous section, are in the hand of a clerk, who has himself signed the document on behalf of the person concerned. On the reverse side of many of the documents are acknowledgements of the transactions, or similar clerical notes, such as the information that this deed was recorded in the local County Court. The recurrence of certain names, such as that of Gideon Evans in the bills of sale in folders 13, 16, 17 and 23, indicates that these documents probably came to the Library together.

Related Resources

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

Bill of Sale for six slaves, Betsey, Roberta, Henry, John, an unnamed boy and an infant, sold to John w. Munn by Bartholomew and Jeanette M. Labuzan, Mobile County, Ala., 1857 April 22 D. 3p. (acknowledged the same day)

Sheriff's notice of the intention of Benjamin Morgan to emancipate his slave, Helen, New Orleans, 1848 July 12 D. 2p. (and note that no opposition was filed, 1848 August 22 Includes positive photostat)

Deed of gift of a Negro child named William, a slave for life, to Helen Duncan from William Duncan, [Harrison County, Ky.], 1828 November 28 2p. (approved in Harrison County Clerk's Office, Ky., 1829 April 13)

Memorandum concerning northern abolitionist sentiment, from the General Assembly of Alabama to the General Assemblies of the several states in the Union, signed by C.C. Clay, [Tuskaloona ?] Ala., 1836 January 9 D.S. 2p. (negative photostat)